The pervasive rape culture and impunity in Denmark

Even though Denmark rates highly for gender equality in many areas of life, the Scandinavian country has “a pervasive rape culture and there is endemic impunity for rapists”, according to a new report by Amnesty International.

France 24 reports “Despite Denmark’s image as a land of gender equality, the reality for women is starkly different, with shockingly high levels of impunity for sexual violence,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo.

According to the Amnesty report, researchers at the University of Southern Denmark said rapes in Denmark could be as high as 24,000 in 2017. And, in that year itself, only 890 rapes were reported to authorities, 535 of which led to prosecutions. Only 94 ended in convictions.

The news report argues that Amnesty says that the differences are because rape in Denmark is often not reported and cases that do go through the justice system rarely result in convictions. This is in large part a result of the process for reporting rape, during which victims are often “met with dismissive attitudes, victim blaming, and prejudice influenced by gender stereotypes and rape myths,” the report said.